Periodic Reporting for period 3 - SEURO (Scaling EUROpean citizen driven transferable and transformative digital integrated health and social care)
Reporting period: 2024-05-03 to 2025-05-02
An estimated 50 million people in the EU (60% aged over 65) live with multimorbidity, which deeply impacts quality of life. Annually, chronic disease management is estimated to cost €700 billion (70-80% of healthcare costs) in the European Union (EU). On top of this, the EU faces strong concerns over the sustainability of health services due to increasing healthcare expenditure, as well as disparities in the number of practising health professionals. To deliver sustainable, efficient multimorbidity care, the EU must expand the use of innovative digital health tools that empower at-home self-management, enhance quality of life, and decentralise services to the community.
The aim of ‘SEURO’ was to evaluate key factors necessary to prepare any EU region to successfully implement, transfer and scale innovative digital health solutions for multimorbidity management. This was achieved via the successful development of three new organisational digital self-assessment tools (ProTransfer, ProBCF-C and ProInsight), which help prepare organisations to maximise the transferability, use and impact of digital health solutions in practice. These tools were evaluated parallel to trials in Ireland, Belgium, Sweden and Italy to assess the effectiveness of the ProACT platform (developed under H2020 project ‘ProACT’ - Grant No 689996 - proact2020.eu) to support older adults (over age 65) self-managing with multimorbidity supported by their care networks. To achieve the project aim, SEURO had the following objectives:
1. Adapt and deploy a transferability self-assessment tool (ProTransfer) to evaluate organisational and local/regional specific readiness for the transferability of ProACT.
2. Implement and evaluate a Behavioural Change Framework (ProBCF) to maximise effective user engagement and scalability of a digital health solution in a ‘Real World’ deployment.
3. Evaluate via trials across Ireland, Belgium and Sweden within and across country transfer, sustainability and scalability of ProACT.
4. Develop a systematic approach for evaluating and assessing organisational/local/regional preparedness using a digital Integrated care system.
5. Develop further the ProACT platform for managing multimorbidity at scale (e.g. advance the analytic capabilities of the platform)
6. Conduct an exploratory trial in Italy to validate the tools and to explore the compatibility of ProACT with existing requirements and constraints of local and EU procurement processes.
7. Develop clear exploitation and dissemination plans for intellectual property created from SEURO
Project outcomes show the tools provide value in supporting organisations to improve their readiness to transfer and scale digital health solutions in practice. Trials of the ProACT platform show its ability to support older adults to effectively self-manage multimorbidity at home. The tools and platform are robust, transferable digital health technologies which provide the ability to advance digital health transformation and improve the health and well-being of EU citizens.
The aim of ‘SEURO’ was to evaluate key factors necessary to prepare any EU region to successfully implement, transfer and scale innovative digital health solutions for multimorbidity management. This was achieved via the successful development of three new organisational digital self-assessment tools (ProTransfer, ProBCF-C and ProInsight), which help prepare organisations to maximise the transferability, use and impact of digital health solutions in practice. These tools were evaluated parallel to trials in Ireland, Belgium, Sweden and Italy to assess the effectiveness of the ProACT platform (developed under H2020 project ‘ProACT’ - Grant No 689996 - proact2020.eu) to support older adults (over age 65) self-managing with multimorbidity supported by their care networks. To achieve the project aim, SEURO had the following objectives:
1. Adapt and deploy a transferability self-assessment tool (ProTransfer) to evaluate organisational and local/regional specific readiness for the transferability of ProACT.
2. Implement and evaluate a Behavioural Change Framework (ProBCF) to maximise effective user engagement and scalability of a digital health solution in a ‘Real World’ deployment.
3. Evaluate via trials across Ireland, Belgium and Sweden within and across country transfer, sustainability and scalability of ProACT.
4. Develop a systematic approach for evaluating and assessing organisational/local/regional preparedness using a digital Integrated care system.
5. Develop further the ProACT platform for managing multimorbidity at scale (e.g. advance the analytic capabilities of the platform)
6. Conduct an exploratory trial in Italy to validate the tools and to explore the compatibility of ProACT with existing requirements and constraints of local and EU procurement processes.
7. Develop clear exploitation and dissemination plans for intellectual property created from SEURO
Project outcomes show the tools provide value in supporting organisations to improve their readiness to transfer and scale digital health solutions in practice. Trials of the ProACT platform show its ability to support older adults to effectively self-manage multimorbidity at home. The tools and platform are robust, transferable digital health technologies which provide the ability to advance digital health transformation and improve the health and well-being of EU citizens.
Key outcomes achieved by the SEURO project in relation to the objectives include:
• The development and evaluation of three new digital implementation support tools (SEURO tools) to improve organisation/service readiness to transfer and scale digital health interventions.
These tools are:
1. ProTransfer: organisational self-assessment tool to help evaluate preparedness for transferring a digital health solution into practice.
2. ProBCF-C: a checklist to help optimise and sustain behaviour change using a digital health solution.
3. ProInsight: an artificial intelligence (AI) prediction model to assess the impact of a digital health solution on health system performance.
Outcomes show the SEURO tools can flexibly support over time organisations across the EU to improve their readiness to transfer and scale digital health solutions in practice
• Implementation and evaluation of the ProACT platform in trials across the EU with older adults (aged 65 and older) with multimorbidity and their associated care network. Outcomes show older adults users had high engagement with the platform (particularly the version with triage support) resulting in improved self-management and quality of life over standard care.
• Completion of an exploratory trial in Italy to evaluate the use of the SEURO tools to advance the procurement process for digital health interventions across the EU. Outcomes show the tools can help streamline EU‐wide digital health procurement by guiding transparent tenders to assess organisational readiness, potentially speeding up and improving future digital health implementation.
• Significant dissemination outcomes achieved to date include: 12 scientific publications, 1 patent, 33 conference presentations, 27 press releases, 28 education/training events held and 17276 key stakeholders engaged via trial site visits. SEURO received two awards the ‘Silver Eco and Ageing Well International Award in 2022’ and Irish Home and Community Care Ireland - Innovation of the Year (2024). The project was also a finalist in the 2023 Irish AI awards. These awards recognise the project as key to advancing innovation in the field of ageing well.
• Exploitation plans are now in place to see the spin out of the SEURO tools (with consultancy service) and ProACT platform across the EU from 2025.
• The development and evaluation of three new digital implementation support tools (SEURO tools) to improve organisation/service readiness to transfer and scale digital health interventions.
These tools are:
1. ProTransfer: organisational self-assessment tool to help evaluate preparedness for transferring a digital health solution into practice.
2. ProBCF-C: a checklist to help optimise and sustain behaviour change using a digital health solution.
3. ProInsight: an artificial intelligence (AI) prediction model to assess the impact of a digital health solution on health system performance.
Outcomes show the SEURO tools can flexibly support over time organisations across the EU to improve their readiness to transfer and scale digital health solutions in practice
• Implementation and evaluation of the ProACT platform in trials across the EU with older adults (aged 65 and older) with multimorbidity and their associated care network. Outcomes show older adults users had high engagement with the platform (particularly the version with triage support) resulting in improved self-management and quality of life over standard care.
• Completion of an exploratory trial in Italy to evaluate the use of the SEURO tools to advance the procurement process for digital health interventions across the EU. Outcomes show the tools can help streamline EU‐wide digital health procurement by guiding transparent tenders to assess organisational readiness, potentially speeding up and improving future digital health implementation.
• Significant dissemination outcomes achieved to date include: 12 scientific publications, 1 patent, 33 conference presentations, 27 press releases, 28 education/training events held and 17276 key stakeholders engaged via trial site visits. SEURO received two awards the ‘Silver Eco and Ageing Well International Award in 2022’ and Irish Home and Community Care Ireland - Innovation of the Year (2024). The project was also a finalist in the 2023 Irish AI awards. These awards recognise the project as key to advancing innovation in the field of ageing well.
• Exploitation plans are now in place to see the spin out of the SEURO tools (with consultancy service) and ProACT platform across the EU from 2025.
SEURO has utilised the state of the art in software development, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and behavioural science to develop a novel digital health platform ‘ProACT’ to support home based self-management of multimorbidity, with 3 tools to help organisations and services improve their readiness to adopt, transfer and scale such solutions in practice. Overall there are 4 key novel outcomes from the project:
• Confirmation of ProACT as an effective and transferable digital health solution to support older adults self-managing multimorbidity. EU health systems have historically focused on single disease frameworks of care which has led to services for multimorbid individuals being inefficient, burdensome and potentially unsafe, due to poorly integrated and coordinated care. ProACT addresses this challenge providing the opportunity to advance a new community driven model of digital care for multimorbidity.
• Creation of 3 new organisational assessment support tools (ProTransfer, ProBCF-C, ProInsight) with implementation framework to better prepare EU organisations/services, regions and localities to implement and transfer digital health solutions in practice.
• Development of a novel secure knowledge integration platform (InterACT) to support the development of advanced data analytics incorporating high levels of security measures to ensure the adequate administration of sensitive personal data in alignment with GDPR and with the potential to advance the ambitions of the European Health Data Space (EHDS).
• Development of EU recommendations and strategies to improve outcomes for digital health technology transfer, procurement processes and pathways towards person centred digitalisation of organisations that wish to address systematically the challenges of the digital health revolution in their service delivery model.
Overall SEURO outcomes provide solutions to support the future transformation of health and care in the EU to the benefit of its people, health systems and economy.
• Confirmation of ProACT as an effective and transferable digital health solution to support older adults self-managing multimorbidity. EU health systems have historically focused on single disease frameworks of care which has led to services for multimorbid individuals being inefficient, burdensome and potentially unsafe, due to poorly integrated and coordinated care. ProACT addresses this challenge providing the opportunity to advance a new community driven model of digital care for multimorbidity.
• Creation of 3 new organisational assessment support tools (ProTransfer, ProBCF-C, ProInsight) with implementation framework to better prepare EU organisations/services, regions and localities to implement and transfer digital health solutions in practice.
• Development of a novel secure knowledge integration platform (InterACT) to support the development of advanced data analytics incorporating high levels of security measures to ensure the adequate administration of sensitive personal data in alignment with GDPR and with the potential to advance the ambitions of the European Health Data Space (EHDS).
• Development of EU recommendations and strategies to improve outcomes for digital health technology transfer, procurement processes and pathways towards person centred digitalisation of organisations that wish to address systematically the challenges of the digital health revolution in their service delivery model.
Overall SEURO outcomes provide solutions to support the future transformation of health and care in the EU to the benefit of its people, health systems and economy.